Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether people who have been furloughed during the covid-19 outbreak who were earning the minimum wage and who have turned 21 since being part of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme will receive an uplift in their furlough rate to the minimum wage rate for people over 21 years of age.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The original policy design of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme aimed to sustain individuals at 80 per cent of their pre-COVID income, up to a maximum grant of £2,500 per month, and the default reference period for the CJRS is that of the pre-COVID period. For the majority of employees and employers, this means that it is not necessary to recalculate the basis of the claim. For newer employees under the extended scheme, it has simply not been possible to extend this default option, hence the reference period is necessarily different for this group. As with all decisions under the CJRS, the Government is balancing the need to support as many employers and individuals as fully as it possibly can, with the need to get the CJRS running quickly and make it easy to use.
The?National Minimum Wage is calculated?on the basis of?hours worked and/or time spent training.?Under flexible furloughing, furloughed workers will be paid National Minimum Wage for any hours the individual spends working. For hours where the employee is furloughed under the CJRS, workers will be paid the lower of 80 per cent of their reference salary, or £2,500. The terms of the scheme do allow for employers to make a top-up payment should they deem this affordable and appropriate.
If workers are required to complete training courses during the hours they are furloughed, then they must be paid at least the appropriate 2020/21 National Minimum Wage for the time spent training, even if this is more than the 80 per cent of their monthly earnings that will be subsidised.
The Chancellor has always been clear that the Government would keep the situation under review, adapting its approach as the context evolved. In January, the Government will review the CJRS policy, taking into account economic circumstances across the UK.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many and what proportion of claimants of carers' allowance pay tax on the benefit.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The information requested is not available.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the amount of revenue raised from tax on carer's allowance.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The information requested is not available.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the most recent (a) reported and (b) projected 2020 Official Development Assistance spending was in each Department.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
We do not publish this information. Official Development Assistance spending fluctuates throughout the year and is monitored regularly by HM Treasury and DFID in order to meet the 0.7% target.
Following the conclusion of each calendar year, DFID publish UK aid spend in Statistics on International Development (SID). Provisional SID's are published in the spring and a final publication is produced in the autumn. The SID series are designated as National Statistics publications. The most recent publication can be found in the link below, on provisional statistics of UK Aid spend in 2019:
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate of gross national income he is using to calculate the 2020 Official Development Assistance budget.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is responsible for producing forecasts of the economy and public finances. HM Treasury does not produce forecasts of the economy or public finances. The latest official forecast of Gross National Income (GNI) was published by the OBR on 11 March 2020. The Official Development Assistance (ODA) commitment is linked to the size of the economy, so the level of ODA spend is likely to decrease this year.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the most recent 2020-21 Official Development Assistance allocations are for each ODA-spending Department.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The government will publish this information in due course.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to repeal the International Tax Enforcement (Disclosable Arrangements) Regulations 2020 after the end of the transition period.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The International Tax Enforcement (Disclosable Arrangements) Regulations 2020 implement an EU Directive known as DAC 6. The UK is obliged to implement this Directive during the transition period.
The Government will keep the Regulations under review. Further legislative action may be appropriate in light of the outcome of negotiations with the EU on the future relationship between the UK and the EU.
The Government remains committed to tax transparency and will continue to apply international standards on transparency and exchange of information.